The video from Dr. Wickersham’s blog and chapter two of our textbook made me realize that I have a great deal of improving to do if I am going to reach the digital natives of today. I have always used a fax machine just to send information to another source so it never occurred to me to use the fax machine for communication or a teaching tool as discussed in Alan November’s book.
Distance education is allowing teachers and students to explore a new frontier. Video streaming, video-conferencing, and e-mails are a few of the forms I use for distance education. The advantages of these technologies include being able to enhance learning, give students a new perspective, experience a virtual field trip to places where they may never get to visit, and communicate with parents quickly. The disadvantages of distance education include the cost of video-conferencing and the fact that many parents may not have e-mail or access to computers or other technologies. Christy Turney told me about http://www.earthcam.com/. This is exciting to me. I found a world map which works well for my teaching assignment in sixth grade Social Studies. A person can click on a part of a world map, choose a country, and then focus on an area of the world and receive a “live” video. I am currently teaching about Australia. This website will allow me to take my students to Australia where they can view a live animal or some other aspect of Australian life. The fact that the feed is live may be a disadvantage because a teacher will not have control over what is viewed; therefore the site will have to be picked very carefully.
I have really enjoyed ETEC 524. I did not know how to blog, make a wiki, use moviemaker or Photo Story 3. I knew how to e-mail, use desktop publishing, and make Power Points - not interactive - so I really look forward to learning how which will allow me to make my teaching Power Points better.
I do have a disadvantage in my district. We only have one open lab and it has been closed to all non-TAKS teachers until TAKS is over because of Successmaker being used by the Reading and Math teachers. This is wonderful if it will make a difference in the success of children; however, it really makes it hard when a teacher wants to do a technology project with students and can not because the labs are not available. Since I also teach fifth and sixth grade gifted and talented students, I plan to have the students do a moviemaker project when the labs are available in May. I can only imagine how wonderful these will be since these students are truly digital natives.
In my vision of education I believe technology should be integrated in an educational setting that helps a student attain individual learning objectives and goals. I aspire to provide my students with a higher order educational environment that promotes life long learning so they will not become lost in the world of one way thinking.
Check out this video: Education Today and Tomorrow. I think it paints a great picture about why, as educators, we should be analyzing our teaching methods to meet the needs of student learning today and tomorrow.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fnh9q_cQcUE
Video Source: http://www.youtube.com/
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